Bukayo Saka was Arsenal’s match-winner against Villa Park as the Gunners recorded a hard-fought 1-0 win to tighten their grip on fourth place in the Premier League.
After the match, the England international, who was named man-of-the-match, faced the BT Sport cameras.
Here’s what he had to say…
On the win being significant…
Yeah, that’s a very big win on the back of the Liverpool defeat mid-week. We knew that today was even bigger and to get that result, the three points, it means so much for the rest of the season, so yeah, I’m so happy.
On giving his shirt to a young fan…
I saw his sign from early, I just wanted to make the boy’s day so I gave him my shirt. Hopefully, he can go home happy.
On scoring Arsenal’s 2000th goal in the Premier League…
That’s special. It’s an honour to be among a lot of great goalscorers for Arsenal. Hopefully, we can get to 3,000 sooner.
On his goal being important after dominating the first half…
That set us up, you know. We created quite a few chances before that and after but that goal really put us in the driving seat. It helped us win the game as well.
On being on the receiving end of some heavy tackles and talking to the ref…
I wasn’t complaining [to the referee at full time] but I wanted to let him know that that’s my game, I’m going to run at players and sometimes I need more protection when players are purposefully trying to kick me. That’s all I was letting him know.
On a few nervy moments at the end…
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course; that’s the Premier League, thats football. We’ve been in that situation a lot this season and we’ve come out on top. We’ve done that again today.
On Arsenal being more resilient these days…
Yeah, we are. You can see that, it’s a process we’ve been working on for a while. Last season, we weren’t there but this season, we’ve been much better at seeing out victories and it’s helping us get more points.
On edging closer to Champions League football…
That’s the goal but, of course, as I keep saying, we have to stay humble, treat every game like a cup final and we can achieve it for sure.
Kicked all over the park, again.
On the other side Cash got away with kicking ESR four times. One of which was a booking on its own
All over Villa Park…
What a guy.
Captain Saka
I have to say Villa are very cuntish in their behavior. I’m really disappointed. Perhaps it’s Stevie G cuntish residue. Honestly could have really injured Saka.
What even more astonishing is to see their fans justify these tackles on social media and blaming it on our players being soft. Seeing these comments made my blood boil.
Ramsey. Diaby. Eduardo. And now they gunning for Saka. Pun definitely intended.
I would definitely appreciate Arteta making a point about it, creates a better us against them mentality. And of course it doesn’t hurt to mention that we’re getting screwed by fixtures as well.
I see klopp came out in defence of Mane being kicked about and he’s clearly a cheating fucker unlike Saka.
He defended Mane so well that refs look the other way when his throwing elbows like his in the Royal Rumble!
I like it, I like it, I like it…
Here we goooooo
Ironically, the only clean tackle they made on him got a yellow card!
By clean tackle, you mean Tyrone Mings jumped in with both feet off the ground and took Saka out after getting the ball first. That’s a yellow. Cash did something similar but atleast one of his legs was folded as if to prepare for a slide. Watch Mings’ tackle again. He won the ball, but a guy that size tackling like that can easily cause injuries. Intent isn’t the only thing that matters, the execution does as well.
Saka said he gave him a hole in his ankle & he spent the rest of the game with his sock full of blood
Bloodied sock and all.
After the last minute disappointment of the City game, its great to see how often we have been able to see out the end of games and win with a tight margin.
It’s so refreshing that the team has clearly learned from that experience and almost thrive off of the backs to the wall (but still in control) part of the game.
Liverpool 0-0 (10 men), Wolves 1-0 (10 men), Wolves 2-1, Brentford 2-1, Watford 3-2…
Tricky week. 3 points better than two draws ! 👊💥
These lesser teams resort to kicking when they realise the can’t keep up.
To think, villa thought they could get ESR last summer.
And that Buendia was better than him 🤣
It’s ridiculous how referees allow teams to get away with kicking our most prized asset. Every game now he gets kicked all over the park. Referees watch it all and do nothing to stop it. This is why we Arsenal fans feel the refs have a conspiracy to keep the club down. If one of these no-talent clowns that can’t keep up with him gets away with intentionally hurting that boy with a cynical foul, I’m going to lose it…
Remember the 50th game of the invincibles.Reyes was kicked all the time and the ref who is the ref chief,didnt take action until it was too late.
The ep has many thugs who wont be able to survive the cls refs.Robust tackles will be rewarde d with a card.
Our Star Boy! ⭐
A champions mentality not the best game but we duck deep got the 3 massive points. Let’s keep going lads don’t bow down to pressure, always believe .
‘Duck deep?
Are you quackers?
We just reached beak banter
Spitting feathers after that comment
Willing to bet that we can get to 3,000 sooner than we did to 2,000!
I wonder how many we have conceeded?
A tad more than thousand goals but less than liverool. Check the stats on PL website 😃
What a joy Bukayo is. Fantastic talent and energy, great attitude too. His family have raised him so well, everything about him makes you feel good.
So true, lucky to know his family, still lives in his parents house and mum drops him off for training daily. Very humble guy and family, hope he keeps it up.
and to think Mason Greenwood was once mentioned to be better than him. Who’s missing now eh?
I think the conversation with the referee was at half time. It looked like both of them were friendly about it, no accusations or defensiveness. Referees talk to each other and in the long run I’m sure that does get them to pay more attention to a particular player being fouled.
Bukayo doesn’t strike me as the kinda bloke who’ll get in the refs face & call him a cunt, just look at his reaction whenever he gets pulled up for a contentious foul, he reacts like his mums told him to do his homework before he goes on his PS5. It’s a physical game but when 36 year old, over the hill converted LBs start kicking him as opposed to attempting to win the ball, that’s when you’d expect some protection
Gérard is quoted as saying “it’s part of the game… I’m sitting here with screws in my hips, I’ve had about 16 operations”
Doesn’t that support the argument that skillful players need more protection?
Where is Flamini when you need him, he protects our midfielders like his life depends on it